Every change in the bottle geometry aswell as every change of physical and rheological properties poses a risk of excessive gas entrainment during a filling process. To maintain satisfactory filling efficiency there is a need to optimise this process with respect to all adverse phenomena which affect the fluid flow, such as spluttering on the bottom, air caverns formation and air entrainment with incoming liquid. This paper comprises numerical simulations of two filling methods. The first method involves dosing with a pipe placed over the free liquid surface of a fully filled bottle. The second method covers filling with a pipe located near the bottom. Moreover, the influence of rheological properties and surface tension values is considered. The comprehensive analysis of amount of entrained air represented by air volume fraction in dispensed liquid let the authors define the influence of filling speed on the mechanism and amount of entrapped air.
The aim of the project was to collect experimental data regarding local distributions of fluid velocity and inert tracer concentration in a tank reactor with turbulent flow. The experiments were performed in a microscale in a region of tracer fluid injection. The results of experiments can be used for direct validation of currently developed CFD models, particularly for time-dependent mixing models used in LES.
The aim of the presented research was to test different carbon supports, such as graphene oxide (GO), graphene oxide modified with ammonia (N-GO), and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for catalysts used in a low-temperature fuel cell, specifically a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Modification of the carbon supports should lead to different catalytic activity in the fuel cell. Reduction of GO leads to partial removal of oxygen groups from GO, forming rGO. Modification of GO with ammonia results in an enrichment of GO structure with nitrogen. A thorough analysis of the used supports was carried out, using various analytical techniques, such as FTIR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis. Palladium and platinum catalysts deposited on these supports were produced and used for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Catalytic activity tests of the prepared catalysts were carried out in a home-made direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC). The tests showed that the enrichment of the GO structure with nitrogen caused an increase in the catalytic activity, especially for the palladium catalyst. However, reduction of GO resulted in catalysts with higher activity and the highest catalytic activity was demonstrated by Pt/rGO, because platinum is the most catalytically active metal for ORR. The obtained results may be significant for low-temperature fuel cell technology, because they show that a simple modification of a carbon support may lead to a significant increase of the catalyst activity. This could be useful especially in lowering the cost of fuel cells, which is an important factor, because thousands of fuel cells running on hydrogen are already in use in commercial vehicles, forklifts, and backup power units worldwide. Another method used for lowering the price of current fuel cells can involve developing new clean and cheap production methods of the fuel, i.e. hydrogen. One of them employs catalytic processes, where carbon materials can be also used as a support and it is necessary to know how they can influence catalytic activity.
Simulations of turbulent mixing in two types of jet mixers were carried out using two CFD models, large eddy simulation and κ-ε model. Modelling approaches were compared with experimental data obtained by the application of particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence methods. Measured local microstructures of fluid velocity and inert tracer concentration can be used for direct validation of numerical simulations. Presented results show that for higher tested values of jet Reynolds number both models are in good agreement with the experiments. Differences between models were observed for lower Reynolds numbers when the effects of large scale inhomogeneity are important.
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have existed for many years and had assimilated many interesting innovations. Advances in electronics, radio transceivers, processes of IC manufacturing and development of algorithms for operation of such networks now enable creating energy-efficient devices that provide practical levels of performance and a sufficient number of features. Environmental monitoring is one of the areas in which WSNs can be successfully used. At the same time this is a field where devices must either bring their own power reservoir, such as a battery, or scavenge energy locally from some natural phenomena. Improving the efficiency of energy harvesting methods reduces complexity of WSN structures. This survey is based on practical examples from the real world and provides an overview of state-of-the-art methods and techniques that are used to create energyefficient WSNs with energy harvesting.
In this paper, some issues of building a reliable, distributed measurement system for monitoring of water quality in reservoir Lake Dobczyckie are presented. The system is based on a measurement station that has the shape of a floating buoy which is supposed to be at anchor on the reservoir. Wireless data transmission problems that were encountered during the development of the buoy, modeling a radio link, and measurements of actual signal strength on the reservoir are discussed. A mathematical approach to procedures of early situation assessment was conducted, and specialized procedures were designed for measurement stations of the system. It is also discussed how such computations can improve a qualitative assessment of system performance in terms of real-time messaging